When the Pittsburgh Steelers are in the news, fans everywhere hold their breath to see what kind of story is floating around. The Steelers have had players on their roster before that have created multiple negative headlines in the media. Today, that’s not exactly the case, with most of the players on the roster focused on winning a championship. Even Cam Heyward, who has sparked a little bit of controversy with his contract situation, has been nothing but clear and upfront about his intentions, creating almost no drama. However, one Steelers’ beat reporter believes the team will find themselves getting major coverage during training camp due to their quarterback battle.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo, during an appearance on The Joe Starkey Show via 93.7 The Fan, spoke about how he believes the battle between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields will dominate news cycles during training camp, even on national networks. Even though it seems all but certain Wilson will end up as the Steelers’ starter, Fittipaldo believes big media outlets won’t be able to resist stirring the pot.
“I think this is gonna be one of the most talked about storylines of camp, not only locally, but I could see Sports Center, NFL Network,” Fittipaldo said. “I could see them leading their coverage each day with what’s going on in Pittsburgh once we do get to training camp here in a couple of weeks.”
Usually, training camp in Pittsburgh hasn’t gotten massive, widespread coverage because the team is relatively routine once they get to Latrobe. Outside of players arriving in vehicles like helicopters, and situations where players weren’t showing up to camp, the Steelers try to keep training camp as strictly business. Therefore, it wouldn’t be surprising if networks like ESPN took this opportunity to capitalize on the quarterback controversy narrative. Fields has said he’s ready to compete, even if the result seems like a foregone conclusion at this point.
Fittipaldo also made a comment about how the national media is misinterpreting the Steelers’ current quarterback situation. While local outlets that only cover Pittsburgh understand that Fields probably isn’t going to get the first crack at being the starter, Fittipaldo says bigger outlets see a real competition.
“The intriguing part is people on the national level believe there’s actually gonna be a quarterback competition in July and August. I think if you listen to most of the beat writers locally, they’ll kind of tell you that Russell Wilson has a leg up, and it’s probably not gonna be all that much of a competition.”
That information lines up with everything that’s been reported about the quarterback position since the Steelers traded for Fields. That won’t stop national media from creating something out of nothing, however. If they aren’t already, fans will probably get sick of hearing about how Fields and Wilson are “battling” as well. A few years ago, everyone knew Mitch Trubisky would start over Kenny Pickett to begin the season, but the Steelers still let the question linger all the same. The media will try to paint this story in a similar light.
Fields may eventually see himself starting for the Steelers, but the team seems impressed with Wilson so far. If Wilson maintains the job all year long and Fields simply gets to sit and learn behind him, that could present the best-case scenario. Whatever the case ends up being, the Steelers will go with whoever gives them the best chance at chasing a Super Bowl. No matter what the media is saying, fans should trust that.